Disclosed is a facility for the refrigeration and/or liquefaction of a fluid, comprising a circuit of fluid to be cooled comprising an upstream end intended to be connected to a source of fluid to be cooled and a downstream end intended to be connected to a member for collecting the cooled and/or liquefied fluid; the facility comprising an assembly of heat exchanger(s) in thermal exchange with the circuit of fluid to be cooled; the facility comprising a cooling device in thermal exchange with the assembly of heat exchange(s); the cooling device comprising a refrigerator with a refrigeration cycle for a cycle gas in a working circuit; the working circuit of the refrigerator comprising, a mechanism for compressing the cycle gas, a system for cooling the cycle gas, a mechanism for expanding the cycle gas and a system for heating the cycle gas; the mechanism for expanding the cycle gas comprising several turbines secured to shafts mounted so as to be able to rotate on aerostatic bearings; the facility comprising mechanisms for braking the turbines, the braking mechanisms each comprising a braking compressor secured to a shaft of a turbine and a braking gas circuit incorporating the braking compressor; the braking gas circuits comprising a system for cooling the braking gas downstream of the braking compressor and a mechanism for expanding the braking gas; the facility being equipped with a compressed lifting gas circuit comprising an end connected to a compressed lifting gas source and a downstream end connected to the bearings, and wherein the compressed lifting gas source comprises at least one of the braking circuits.

Systems and methods disclosed herein relate to a cryogenic refrigeration system which may use a compression based cryocooler or liquid nitrogen pre-cool to cool a medium to ˜80K, and may in conjunction with a magnetic refrigeration system operating in the sub-80K temperature regime to provide cooling to a medium to temperatures below 80K. In some embodiments, the disclosed system may be useful for cooling on the order of about 3 kg/day to about 300 kg/day of hydrogen gas to liquid form, with higher efficiency than a standard vapor compression based system. This higher efficiency may make the system a more attractive candidate for use in cryogenic cooling applications.

Described herein are systems and processes for precooling hydrogen or helium gas streams for liquefaction using liquid nitrogen having reduced energy consumption and amount of liquid nitrogen usage. The systems include a stream of pressurized liquid nitrogen, at least one turboexpander, and at least one heat exchanger.

An expansion turbine configured such that even when pressure of process gas steeply changes, the amount of process gas leaking from a gap between an impeller and a cover is made small. The expansion turbine includes a gas supply passage which is connected to any one of a gas supply passage and a gas discharge passage and through which gas is supplied to a region located between a rotor member and a casing member.

Cryogenic refrigeration device comprising a working circuit intended to cool a working fluid circulating in the said circuit, the working circuit comprising, arranged in series in a loop: a compression portion, a cooling portion, a portion with valve(s), an expansion portion and a reheating portion, in order to subject the working fluid to a recuperative working cycle comprising compression, then cooling, then expansion and then reheating to prepare for a new cycle, wherein the compression portion comprises at least one compressor having a linear piston driven by a linear motor, the expansion proportion comprises at least one expander with a linear piston, the portion with valve(s) comprises at least one regulating valve linearly actuated by a linear motor and controlled in order to supply or extract the working fluid from the at least one expansion piston.

A method for recovering a helium product or intermediate product, wherein a first natural gas stream containing helium is supplied to a first natural gas processing unit and at least one second natural gas stream containing helium is supplied to at least one second natural gas processing unit, at least the first natural gas processing unit comprising helium recovery means via which the helium product is formed from at least a part of the first natural gas stream. At least temporarily a helium transfer from the at least one second natural gas stream to the first natural gas stream by means of a helium transfer arrangement comprising a membrane unit is performed before the first natural gas stream is provided to the first natural gas processing unit and before the at least one second natural gas stream is provided to the at least one second natural gas processing unit.

A mobile liquefaction plant (7) for liquefying helium, includes a liquefaction device (8) that liquefies helium, an intermediate storage tank (9) for liquefied helium, a cleaning device (29) which removes non-helium components from the helium and is connected upstream of the liquefaction device, and an additional collecting device (25) that collects gaseous helium which evaporates when an application cryostat (4) is filled with liquid helium and that includes a container (26) with a flexible wall and which stores the collected gaseous helium approximately at atmospheric pressure. The container (26) has an available container volume of at least 5 m.sup.3. Systems provided with such a mobile liquefaction plant exhibit an improved recovery of helium from application cryostats in a simple and cost-effective manner.

Liquefaction of industrial gases or gas mixtures (hydrocarbon and/or non-hydrocarbon) uses a modified aqua-ammonia absorption refrigeration system (ARP) to chill the gas or gas mixture during the liquefaction process. The gas is compressed to above its critical point, and the heat of compression energy may be recovered to provide some or all of the thermal energy required to drive the ARP. A Joule Thomson (JT) adiabatic expansion process results in no requirement for specialty cryogenic rotating equipment. The aqua-ammonia absorption refrigeration system includes a vapour absorber tower (VAT) that permits the recovery of some or all of the heat of solution and heat of condensation energy in the system when anhydrous ammonia vapour is absorbed into a subcooled lean aqua-ammonia solution. The modified ARP with VAT may operate at pressures as low as 10 kPa, and the ammonia gas chiller may operate at temperatures as low as −71° C.

Disclosed are a helium gas liquefier and a method for liquefying a helium gas. The disclosed helium gas liquefier includes: a first cooling part including a first cooling column; a first cold head installed on the first cooling column, and a first cylinder in which the first cooling column and the first cold head are built; a second cooling part including a second cooling column, a second cold head installed on the second cooling column, and a second cylinder in which the second cooling column and the second cold head are built; and a liquid helium storage disposed under the second cooling part.

An arrangement comprising at least one liquefaction plant for liquefying a gaseous medium to produce a liquefied medium; and at least one storage tank for storing the liquefied medium. At least one first transfer line is connected between the liquefaction plant and the storage tank, for transferring liquefied medium from the liquefaction plant into the storage tank. At least one second transfer line is connected between the liquefaction plant and the storage tank, for transferring gaseous medium from the storage tank into the liquefaction plant. At least one shut-off valve is provided in each transfer line. The apparatus further includes a bypass line.